iota

{{Short description|Ninth letter in the Greek alphabet}}

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{{About-distinguish|Greek iota|Jota (disambiguation){{!}}Jota}}{{For-multi|Latin iota|ɩ|Cyrillic Iota|Iota (Cyrillic)|other uses}}

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{{Greek Alphabet|letter=iota}}

Iota ({{IPAc-en|aɪ|ˈ|oʊ|t|ə|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Iota.wav}};{{OED|iota}} uppercase Ι, lowercase ι; {{Langx|el|ιώτα}}) is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh.Victor Parker, A History of Greece, 1300 to 30 BC, (John Wiley & Sons, 2014), 67. Letters that arose from this letter include the Latin I and J, the Cyrillic І (І, і), Yi (Ї, ї), and Je (Ј, ј), and iotated letters (e.g. Yu (Ю, ю)). In the system of Greek numerals, iota has a value of 10.{{cite web|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/HistTopics/Greek_numbers.html |title=Greek numbers |publisher=History.mcs.st-and.ac.uk |access-date=2014-05-04}}

Iota represents the close front unrounded vowel {{IPA|el|i|IPA}}. In early forms of ancient Greek, it occurred in both long {{IPA|[iː]}} and short {{IPA|[i]}} versions, but this distinction was lost in Koine Greek. Iota participated as the second element in falling diphthongs, with both long and short vowels as the first element. Where the first element was long, the iota was lost in pronunciation at an early date, and was written in polytonic orthography as iota subscript, in other words as a very small ι under the main vowel. Examples include ᾼ ᾳ ῌ ῃ ῼ ῳ. The former diphthongs became digraphs for simple vowels in Koine Greek.see Koine Greek phonology

The word is used in a common English phrase, "not one iota", meaning "not the slightest amount". This refers to iota, the smallest letter, or possibly yodh, י, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet.{{Cite web |date=2020-03-30 |title=Yud (Hebrew Letter) - BJE |url=https://bje.org.au/knowledge-centre/jewish-languages/hebrew-alphabet/yud/ |access-date=2025-03-21 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Tverberg |first=Lois |date=2015-06-30 |title=Yod - One Very Significant Letter |url=https://engediresourcecenter.com/2015/06/30/yod-one-very-significant-letter/#gsc.tab=0 |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=En-Gedi Resource Center |language=en-US}} The English word jot derives from iota.{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jot |title=Jot | Define Jot at Dictionary.com |publisher=Dictionary.reference.com |access-date=2014-05-04}} The German, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish name for the letter J (Jot / jota) is derived from iota.